to protect our kids. [ baby coughing ] this is "world news." tonight, road rule the nation's top safety officials say it's time to crack down for real on those cell phones in our cars. courthouse surprise. jerry sandusky, his wife by his side, cancels a showdown with the young men who say he sexually abused them. getting action. after an abc news investigation, a billion dollars wasted with the government making coins no one wants. tonight, the mint agrees to stop the presses. the real running mates. the republican front-runners deploying wives as secret weapons. how these two women could change the race. and mr. mom. a stunning change in american families. have you noticed something very different on television and in your neighbor's living room?

good evening. today, the nation's top safety official said enough is enough. all those lectures about putting down the cell phones and blackberries when behind the wheel are not working. that distracted drivers are still causing 600,000 crashes and 3,000 deaths every year. so, today, the national transportation safety board said they want urgent action to ban cell phones for drivers, period, and failure to comply should mean that drivers pay a very tough price. abc's lisa stark on what happened today. lisa, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, diane. well, this is an unprecedented move by the highly respected ntsb. what they're calling for goes far beyond any law now in the books, not just a ban on hand held cell phones but in fact, no talking at all, along with no texting while on the road. the board calls it a

full-fledged crisis on the nation's roads. talking while driving. and even more dangerous, texting while drives. text and your eyes leave the road for an average of nearly five seconds. at 55 miles an hour, you will have driven the length of a football field essentially blind. shelley forney lost her 9-year-old daughter to a distra distragted driver. >> she hit my taugdaughter head. >> reporter: jacy good, her parents. >> both of my parents were killed instantly. i wasn't breathing. no one expected i would live past the first 36 hours. >> reporter: right now, laws are all over the map. texting while driving is banned in 35 states and washington, d.c. handheld cell phone use is outlawed in ten states and d.c. but the ntsb wants a ban on the use of all personal electronic devices in cars, except in

emergencies, or when the device is used to help the driver, such as gps navigation. >> it's a very, very serious issue and people need to put their devices down and drive. >> reporter: they say it's time to take the same tough approach that we did on drunk driving, which has saved tens of thousands of lives. today's move, prompted by this deadly accident. the driver of the pickup received 11 text messages in the 11 minutes before his crash. 90% of drivers support texting bans. 60% favor cell phone bans. still, drivers don't practice what they preach, admitting they would talk and text even near a police officer, at night time or with children on board. what we we don't need to depend on the government. car economies are starting to put technology in vehicles which will disable your phone when you turn that key. and that may turn out to be what

really saves lives. diane? >> all right, lisa stark reporting from the road tonight. and now, to what was expected to be a dramatic encounter between ten alleged victims and the man they say sexually abused them. jerry sandusky. instead, though, the former penn state football coach called it off at the last second. why? abc's jim avila is back on this story for us tonight. >> reporter: jerry sandusky headed towards court this morning with a secret. his trademark grin firmly in place, wife at his side and another surprise up his lawyer's sleeve. >> the move today was the first smart move i've seen from this attorney. >> reporter: after weeks of promising a grueling public confrontation with all ten of his accusers, the defense changed its mind, waiving the preliminary hearing and instead pleading not guilty and heading directly to trial. >> we fully intend to put together the best possible defense that we can do. stay the course.

>> this is a tight to the death. this is the fight of jerry's life. >> reporter: the 25 250-year-ol courthouse, surrounded by media. the courtroom filled with 250 lottery-winning spectators, including sandusky's wife, his children and supporters. all set for drama. but the alleged victims, waiting in the wings to testify, never got to say a word. court adjourned, one minute after the first gavel drop, leaving them hurt and angry. >> i'm calling him a coward. anybody that would abuse children like this is by definition a coward. >> reporter: prosecutors had prepared alleged victim number four to be the first one up. he waited 45 minutes to take the stand. and when told to go home, wrote this note, read by his attorney. >> this is the most difficult time of my life. nothing has changed. i still will stand my ground, testify and speak the truth. and he's underlined the word

truth. >> reporter: why the last minute change? some observers believe that sandusky's attorney had hoped to intimidate the accusers by promising a vigorous ross examination. but when that didn't happen and they all showed up, he chose prudence over bravado. diane? >> all right, jim avila, reporting in tonight. and now we move to politics, your voice, your vote. republican front-runner newt gingrich has taken on mitt romney and how romney made his millions, raising the question, did romney lay off u.s. workers to reap big corporate profits? abc's anchor david muir takes a deeper look at romney's business history, how the companies fared and whether there was a human cost. >> reporter: at nearly every stop on the campaign trail, mitt romney serves up his business resume. in iowa, we listened as romney told factory workers about an american brand he helped create. >> i had the fun of being involved in a startup that was not government-backed. in this case, it's called staples. >> reporter: romney and his team

at bane company were largely responsible for stayin istaples. nearly 90,000 employees. selling those companies for profit. the heat comes after newt gingrich fired the first salvo among republicans in the race. >> if governor romney would like to give back all the money he's easterned from laying off employees and bankrupting companies over his years at bane, then i would be glad to listen to him. >> reporter: late night jumping right in after, poking fun of this outtake, a photo of romney and his colleagues, so succe successful, dollars coming out of his thirtheir shirts. but romney, worth $250 million, has faced this criticism before. 1994, ted kennedy facing a bruising challenge from romney, found workers from an office supply factory who lost their

jobs after romney's bain capital took a majority take. >> you're taking jobs away from us to put money in your pocket. >> reporter: and political on serbers say if romney is nominated, expect the same argument from president obama. >> that will be the central part of the argument. do we want to turn this economy over to the same people that messed it up? >> reporter: but a lot of romney's supporters would likely say, we just axel rated what needed to be done anyway to make companies more profitable. >> romney's argument is, we're in a global economy, we have to do what is needed, that's the way we can grow out of this. >> reporter: romney does not offer a net gain of jobs at bain capital, but he did say this so far. "sometimes we acquired businesses and tried to turn them around and typically," he says, "created tens of thousands of new jobs." we know that didn't happen at every company and tomorrow, mitt romney comes to new york with fund-raisers with some of the same investors who were his

peers at bain capcapital. >> thank you, david. and during the financial crisis, the system was rigged against the middle class in favor of the rich. today, three men, former top executives at was once the largest savings and loan, washington mutual, reached and agreement with the government. they earned some $95 million in the three years before the bank failed in the biggest bank collapse of all-time. federal regulators had sought $900 million in damages from them, but got just $64 million in the settlement. most of which will be paid by insurance companies. and overseas, a horrific attack in eastern belgium. a man threw hand grenades into a crowd of holiday shoppers and then opened fire with an assault rifle. at least five people were killed, more than 120 were injured. the man's motive remains unclear, but officials say it was not terrorism. the gunman had a history of drug

and weapons convictions. and now, our washington watchdog. and abc got action today. it was a story that outraged so many of you. a stock pile of coins, each worth $1, but costing taxpayers a lot more than that. abc east john jon karl has news for everyone tonight. >> reporter: the government has been sitting on more than a billion unused and unwanted dollar coins. so what have they been doing about it? they've been making more of them. as we found when we visited the u.s. mint over the summer. about a million and a half every day, at a cost of 32 cents a pop. now treasury secretary timothy geithner says enough is enough. >> we shouldn't be wasting money on money. >> reporter: because virtually nobody uses the coin, they go right to storage. a boondoggle that's cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars since 2005. here at the federal reserve in

baltimore, the coins are stacked into bags all the way up and down this aisle, several aisles of them, millions and millions of dollars in presidential coins. so far, they've made coins of every president from george washington to james garfield. but as of today, that's going to stop. savings to taxpayers? $50 million a year. but, diane, if you were really counting on getting a president chester arthur coin, don't despair. the mint will resume production of the coins next spring, but in much smaller numbers. they will only make enough to meet the demands of coin collectors who preorder them. >> jon karl, thank you. and still ahead on "world news," the real running mates. many of you watched our abc news debate and wanted to know more about these two women. and that's coming up. a revolutionary change in the real modern family in america. why are laundry commercials now marketing to dad? and how a photographer of some of america's biggest

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edge ranging from foreign policy to marital fidelity and family. so, who are these women and what makes them such formidable political weapons? here's abc's sharyn alfonsi. >> reporter: with his poll numbers plummeting, mitt romney is deploying his not so secret weapon, his wife, ann. >> mitt is not what you think at home. he is my most disobedient child. >> reporter: a change of course from 1994, when ann romney was mocked for telling reporters she and her husband never seriously argued. today, she plays a different role. >> ann romney is there to show people that mitt romney is a human being. and someone whose hair gets messed up sometimes. >> reporter: ann began dating romney in high school, converted to mormonism and married him at age 20. today, she often talks about the couple's unblemished 42 years of marriage and the way he stood by her during her fight with multiple sclerosis.

>> that's the kind of guy he is. he doesn't give up. he sticks with you. you can trust him. >> reporter: stories that draw sharp contrast to what pun diments say is newt gingrich's gratest vulnerability, his marital history. at saturday's debate, he was asked about that as his third wife, calista, looked on. >> i made mistakes at times. i had to go to god for forgiveness. >> reporter: he does not hide her in the background. he credits her for reviving his campaign. regularly bringing her up in speeches. >> calista and i. >> reporter: she's a french horn player who sings in the choir of her church. gingrich has since converted to catholicism. the couple's modern marriage is said to be modeled on the partnership of ronald and nancy reagan. >> she describes herself as being a cross between nancy reagan and laura bush with just a slight bit of jackie kennedy tossed in. >> reporter: but she's stayed, for the most part, quiet, routinely standing beside him but rarely publicly speaking.

two wildly different approaches from the women now described as the candidate's real running mates. sharyn alfonsi, abc news, new york. and still ahead, a startling new number signaling a revolutionary change in the american family. [ male announcer ] how do you say... welcome to the neighborhood. ♪ [ male announcer ] how do you say... can you believe it's been 20 years since college? ♪ [ male announcer ] nothing says "you're special" like boursin, a creamy, crumbly blend of real cheese and savory herbs, boursin makes any moment more memorable. even if you're saying... my mother has the kids tonight. ♪ [ male announcer ] how do you say boursin? ♪ this was the gulf's best tourism season in years. all because so many people wanted to visit us... in louisiana. they came to see us in florida... nice try, they came to hang out with us in alabama...

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that she also favors afternoon naps and princess dresses -- >> very pretty. >> reporter: are simple quirks of lesser's particular trade. parenting. >> i never had that passion as an attorney. and i -- i do have that passion as a dad. >> reporter: lesser is a stay at home dad. and much less of an exception than he once was. because our culture is changing, beyond the driving forces of economics and employment. the detergent commercial that once featured mom now has dad doing the laundry. >> i'm a dad mom. >> reporter: and fathers trading spreadsheets for clean sheets. once a novelty, now a regular popular call sure. >> at least you don't have to work. >> yeah. kid raising isn't work at all. >> reporter: the number of stay at home dads have doubled to almost 5 million today and counting. >> proud to consider myself a stay at home dad and, you know, my feelings of what i think about myself are completely tied

to my daughter. >> reporter: despite such investment, stay at home dads still tread at the fringe of realms that were once their wives. >> nobody seems to judge me for the fact that i went back to work. but a lot of people seem to feel really comfortable judging dave. >> reporter: so, like the teams of their youth, they ban together, like this stay at home daddy play group. >> knowing that you're not alone. you're like, look, i got this posse of other guys that are doing the same thing. >> reporter: all work and all play. at least, until it's time for the boss to go night night. full disclosure. i have a daughter about penny's age and i know, when i approached library groups, i felt i was disembarking a lunar module, one dirty diaper for man and all the rest. but now i do feel as though i am accepted as just another one of the moms and dads. >> and this change is happening at such a rapid pace. i hope your little boss is

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it is going to be a tough christmas for some of the youngest americans. a new study showing a 33% increase in the number of homeless children in just four years. but tonight, a way to help some of these children, allowing them to hold onto their dream. it's the power of a simple photograph to transform a life. here's abc's barbara pinto. >> reporter: a few christmases ago, brittanie pemberton's family was homeless and down on their luck. >> when i used to tell people i was homeless, they would always look at my differently after that. >> reporter: even brittanie couldn't picture her future. >> it was kind of rock bottom. >> right there. let's see the faces. >> reporter: but then one person changed everything, a celebrity photographer who forced brittanie to see life through a different lens. linda solomon made her career focusing on hollywood's biggest stars. now with a grant from general motors, she's shining a light on homeless children. helping them capture their hopes

and dreams on film. >> my dream is to find a great place to live. >> me and my mom having our own house and our own rooms. >> my dream is to help children find a home. >> you never see i pads or ipods. these are the dreams of children that that are living in shelters. they dream for others to have a good home, they dream of a good education. >> reporter: their photos are turned into holiday cards, sold to benefit programs that help get these families back on their feet. this is where it all started? right on this spot. >> exactly right here. >> reporter: when brittanie snapped a photo of the sign at san diego state university, she dreamed of being the first person in her family to go to college. her card found its way to the president of the university, who was so moved he offered her a full scholarship. what do you think? she's going to college. >> i know. she'll do good. >> reporter: for all of these kids, it's a change to change focus, to picture a better life.

>> they're on the road to hope, once they can see it. and that's what's so empowering for them. >> reporter: barbara pinto, abc news, san diego. >> and it's always great to have you watching with us. and we are always on at abcnews.com. don't forget, "nightline" will be here later. and we leave you tonight with anotherchristmas, tonight in duluth, minnesota. have a great night, everyone. [ female announcer ] more people are using wireless devices...

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